Sammy Bland

Samuel William Bland, Jr., (born April 14, 1929, Rocky Mount, North Carolina – died November 9, 2018, Harrisonburg, Virginia), was an American who was active in broadcasting and entertainment circles for more than five decades, broadcasting the first Daytona 500[1] stock car race, known throughout Eastern North Carolina for live television and radio performances and across the South for his syndicated "Racing News with Sammy Bland," sponsored on radio by Ford Motor Company.

He had his own swing band which played throughout Eastern Carolina and then founded "Sammy Bland and the Folk Caravan."

For a short period of time, Bland traveled with Lash LaRue as an announcer for the show and appeared with many well known country music stars in Nashville, Tennessee.

While still with WCEC, he started and starred in his own variety show on WNCT in Greenville, North Carolina, known as the Jewel Box Jamboree.

Retired Cup Champion Ned Jarrett worked with Bland and Campbell on live broadcasts and prepared a racing program which became a part of the network.

Bland's closest friends in the racing circuit were Joe Weatherly, Paul Sawyer, Curtis Turner, Junior Johnson and other drivers and promoters of that time.

Bland left WCEC in the late 1960s and continued his racing broadcasts and serving as track announcer for several years.

Racing News became a television program when Bland left WITN and joined WCTI in New Bern, North Carolina.

During the early 1980s, Bland moved to Charlotte Amalie in the U.S. Virgin Islands to manage the Worrell Newspaper’s TV stations there.